McClory: It’s not quite time to put away your skis this year

Don’t give up just yet if you love winter. The recent rain is discouraging many skiers, but let me tell you, don’t hang the boards up yet. Don’t be fooled by looking out your window at the diminishing snowbanks. I can attest to the fact that there is still a lot of winter up north in New Hampshire, Maine and Vermont. Do you realize they received upward of two feet of new snow in some areas? Recently we headed to Jackson, NH to meet up with our friends Joan and Ernie for an annual weekend ski getaway. Our first stop was Attitash, where we were still skiing corduroy fresh tracks after lunch on Tightrope, Tim’s Trauma, and upper Ptarmigan. The slopes were empty with no lift wait at all. The snow was pristine and temperatures were in the high 20s with bright sun. It was truly a ’10’ day. We shot up to Wildcat and had a wild day on the slopes. We had all kinds of weather: rain, icy rain, snow, sleet and 30-mph winds. While riding the summit triple to the top, the weather got nastier as we traveled through clouds. At one point, we even saw a rainbow in the distance where the sun was shining for a few minutes. The conditions stayed good until early afternoon when it was time to quit anyway. At the end of the day we all dined, drank, and shared stories and skiing memories with some wonderful people. Thanks again JEM!Help protect box turtles, peregrine falcons and other endangered wildlife by supporting the Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Fund when you file your state income tax this year. Since 1983, Massachusetts tax filers of Form 1 have had the option of donating to this effort through the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Fund when filing their state income tax (Line 32a: “Endangered Wildlife Conservation”), and tens of thousands of people have done so over the years. All contributions go directly into the Fund, an important portion of the annual operating budget of DFW’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program (NHESP), which conserves and protects endangered species and their habitats in Massachusetts.A public hearing will be held by the Fisheries and Wildlife Board on Tuesday, March 22 beginning at 3 p.m. at MassWildlife Field Headquarters, 1 Rabbit Hill Rd. (off North Drive) in Westborough, regarding proposed revisions to the deer hunting regulations administered by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. The regulation revisions propose the allowance of the use of break-open breech muzzleloaders, which have become widely available and popular.The Sebago Lake Derby was held Saturday and Sunday, Feb. 26 and 27, and the winning fish was caught by two anglers. I’ve personally seen this happen in the summer while trolling with a number of lines but never in the winter through the ice. As the story goes, an ice fisherman started to play out a very large fish. A few minutes into the fight, another angler close by got a flag on and he also had a beauty on. They both fought what appeared to be two different fish for quite a while until one was able to land his trophy 14.4-pound togue (lake trout). While admiring his (or their) fish, a second hook was noticed in the fish. So it seems that two people caught the winning togue at the same time. A heated argument followed, which became bad enough for the Derby committee’s lawyer and wardens to get involved. Eventually the dispute was settled when both of the lucky fishermen agreed to split the prize, which was a boat, motor and trailer rig. The committee also presented two trophies and will have one real fish mount and one reproduction mount of the fish so both of these anglers will have something special to remember. Over 1,500 fish were entered into the derby, down a few hundred from previous years.All for now.